Part of the court-of-public-opinion trial of a matter in which the (suspended) president of the Botswana Patriotic Front president, Reverend Biggie Butale, is alleged to have sexually assaulted a university student has taken the form of some questioning why she didn’t report the matter to the police. Oddly and in keeping with non-legal standards of that court, proceedings have been bereft of important details. The missing detail is to be found in a written report that followed an interview with the alleged victim, a student at the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN) by an all-female panel. The interview was conducted by two members of the National Executive Committee: BPF’s Deputy President, Caroline Lesang and the Secretary for Education, Reitumetse Aphiri. While designated as panel member, Magdalene Joubert, who was also in the NEC, didn’t show up for this particular interview – which took place on May 21, 2021.
On the fateful evening, the student, who was running for a position in the BUAN student government, had visited Mr. Butale’s house. By her account, as recorded in the Lesang-Aphiri report, Butale pounced within minutes of her entering the house.
“Mr Butale blocked her and pulled her towards him, and as she tried to resist, he asked her if she wants to have sex with him, and pulled out a condom and he said it wouldn’t take long. She said he showed her the sofa, which she refused to do. She said he further pinned her to the wall, and she tried to resist, and it was at that point that Mr. Butale took out his penis and placed it between her thighs, and started thrusting until he ejaculated between her thighs. Afterwards, he showed her the bathroom to go and clean up, and handed her a bottle of water,” the report reads.
Thereafter, Butale reportedly asked the students to spend the night but she says that she refused. Butale then drove her back to BUAN, which is on the outskirts of Gaborone. Upon arrival back at campus, the first person that she told about what had just happened to her was her best friend. Upon hearing the story, the friend said that Butale had “molested” the student.
“Her friend explained that the challenge was that she had wiped the evidence by cleaning herself off and the police would not believe her without the evidence. She said she then decided to keep quiet about the incident and brush it aside,” says the report adding that as a way of coping with the assault, “she decided to take some time off to get over what had happened to her, and during this time she became reserved and didn’t talk or communicate much until she met Mr. Ookeditse.”
The latter is Lawrence Ookeditse who is BPF’s Secretary for Publicity. Upon their meeting, the student said that she asked Ookeditse what kind of person Butale was – then told him what he had done to her “much to his shock and disbelief.” As the friend, Ookeditse “reiterated that without evidence it would be difficult to report him.”
At a press conference that he addressed last month, Butale also mentioned Ookeditse in connection with this saga but in a totally different context. As part of a broader and widely divergent account, Butale alleged that it was Ookeditse who prompted the student to ensnare him by recording a telephone conversation in which she falsely accused him of sexually assaulting her.
During a conversation that has been packaged into an audio clip, Butale asks the student, “Did you come” and whether she “enjoyed” the sexual encounter. In the interview with Lesang and Aphiri, the student said that she subsequently confronted Butale via a phone text message “about what he did”, telling him that “he had molested her” and that she had hoped that he “would respond to her, but he instead started calling her and denied any wrongdoing.” The part about hope is not very clear but it would seem that she had hoped that Butale would also respond communicate in like manner.
A few days later, the student received a message from a friend that “Mr Butale was roaming around the school, angrily looking for her. She indicated that Mr. Butale came to her room and knocked at the door, and she chased him away because she could not face him after what happened.” What irked her the most was that not only did he deny what he did to her but was also not willing to apologise. It was then that she decided “to record their conversations to gather her own evidence against him, and eventually opted to report her case to the BPF NEC in the hope that Mr. Butale would apologise to her.” The report adds that “all she wanted was for Mr. Butale to admit wrongdoing and apologise to her, so she could put it all behind her.”
The issue of reporting the matter to the police came up again during the question-and-answer that followed the student making a statement to Lesang and Aphiri at the BUAN campus. When Aphiri asked the student if she ever considered this option, her response was that she did but was scared that it was going to be her word against his.” It also turns out that a female BPF member, who is named in the report and also learnt about the alleged sexual assault before it became public, “called her and convinced her not to tell anybody about this issue.” Another BPF member, who was helping the student in her campaign at BUAN, “advised her to switch off her phone and not talk to anyone and that she should stay off social media.”
This member also advised her not speak to three particular fellow BPF members. The report doesn’t explain why – only that they visited her at school in apparent effort to comfort her. From what Sunday Standard learns, one of those members was an NEC member who would later take Butale’s side when the NEC tried hauling Butale over the coals over the matter.
The student said that the incident traumatised, angered and instilled fear in her and exposed her to ridicule from other students. The latter adversely affected her campaign for student office. For what it is worth, BUAN management provided emotional support. On the advice of school management, the student consulted a professional counsellor. She also received similar support from her family as well as her boyfriend. The latter advised her “to wait until the emotions had worn off then she could confront Mr. Butale.”
